I understand some of the rulings that the NCAA put down this past week for the next couple years of football, but why ban eye black that has words on them… isn’t that like freedom of speech kind of thing? I mean, it’s not distracting the other players on the opposing team, and if it is, they need to work on that themselves…

So, today (it was more like last week) as we’re driving from one house to the other house, (I work for a moving company) I hear this news story over the radio and laughed my head off… almost. The series was dumb people that shouldn’t be allowed to breath… that’s not something good, cause ‘we’ shouldn’t decide if one gets something that essential or not… but I’m guessing they we’re talking figuratively and it was sort of funny. Here’s the story:

A man comes into the police station saying someone stole his fishing polls. The police officers that were on duty wrote down as much information for the man that they could, and then followed him back to where they were stolen. He had been in a bar when the fishing poles were stolen, having a few brews after a good day of fishing. The officers concluded that there wasn’t enough information and evidence to continue the investigation, so they made their way back to the station.

As they were driving back, they came upon a man driving a lawn mower down the street with a couple of fishing poles hanging of the back. They decided to pull him over and see what they could figure out. The officers asked him if he had been fishing that day. “Yeah,” he said. “Where did you fish at?” the officer asked. “The lake… river… pond…” said the man on the mower. The officers knew what was going on, but it didn’t take long until the man confessed that he had stolen the fishing poles at the bar that the other man was at. He had gone that day to get a couple of brews, driving his lawn mower because he had his licence taken away from him for having too many DWI’s. He saw the fishing poles and thought he could get a buck or two off of them. If he would have just gone to the bar and then left, he might have gotten away with what he was doing, but decided to take things a little bit further with stealing the fishing poles. Way to have a DWI on a lawn mower…. good stuff.

These are tough times and maybe some drastic actions should be taken so we can start decreasing the debt that we seem to keep increasing all the time. This is just one of my many crazy ideas, and it might not work at all, but it could be a possibility. What if the players, musicians, and actors, that have millions upon millions of dollars (and other people that make it rich with inventive ideas… Bill Gates), who spend it frivolously on huge houses, cars and whatever else that want; what if they donated “some” of that money towards our country’s deficit. (I am sure that most of them earned what they have and are free to do what they want with that money, but I would say that some probably didn’t earn it upright. That doesn’t matter much at all; what matters more is how they and everyone else spends their money.)

I seem to be getting off topic, so I will try and bring it back into focus. We have a huge deficit and it will probably keep getting bigger if we don’t start to do something about it. I know that even if every star in every area of entertainment gave a good chunk of their money, we wouldn’t be close to paying off our deficit. But maybe, if we all started thinking differently about the way we spend our money and how we handle it, then maybe we can start to change the way this country is going.

After watching The Passion earlier, I started thinking about the angry crowds who were shouting ‘Crucify Him!’ We always look down on the one’s who shouted those words, wondering how they could do that to their Savior. Remember, these were the same people who less than a week previously had welcomed Him into Jerusalem with much celebration. I often hear people say something along the lines of: When the end times come, I won’t be one of those “weak” Christians who are going to fall away(Matthew 24:12). Are you sure? Don’t be too proud(already not a good sign).

I don’t think that anyone in that crowd that welcomed Jesus into the city thought that they’d be crying for His blood a few short days later. How does one explain their actions? Well, Jesus said that it was the hour of the power of darkness(Luke 22:53) and it seems that in an “hour” such as that, most bend to the enemy’s whims. Just something to be said, there will be many “dark hours” apart from the end times.

So, what makes those who stay true to the Lord Jesus Christ different from those who don’t? Not much, in the whole scheem of things, but there is some thing that can determine the difference. We are all made the same, no one is “better” than the other, only God knows in each person’s heart who is His’ and who has fallen for the devil. It is not anything that we have done, or not done, to be apart of God’s family; all we get to do is accept God’s gift and ask Jesus to help us live our lives for Him. There are other voices that are out there, one’s connected to His’ and others that maybe look and try to sound the part, but will lead in another direction.

John 10:1-5 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, FOR THEY KNOW HIS VOICE. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Jesus’ sheep will know His voice. Some will not be apart of the flock because they didn’t hear His voice. There are many shepherds(even well meaning ones) who would lead us off a cliff. I’m making it a priority to KNOW His voice.

I was watching the NBA a couple of weeks ago with some friends of mine and a commercial came on for the playoffs. One of my friends commented on why the NBA was trying to make things seem like they were gangsta when they didn’t want their players acting like that at all. I thought it was a funny way of looking at the commercial, but either way you look at it, its catchy…